


Day 7: Isolation

by evilwriter37



Series: Whumptober 2019 [7]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Isolation, Sensory Deprivation, Starvation, Whump, hiccup!whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 23:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20938790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Viggo imprisons Hiccup in complete darkness and isolation.





	Day 7: Isolation

Hiccup thought he was losing his mind. It was dark, so dark. There was no source of light whatsoever, no window, no nothing. He’d been left there in the dark, in a cell made of stone. The Dragon Hunters had captured him, he didn’t know how long ago. He was hungry and thirsty, and the cell stank of his refuse and nervous sweat. The air was rank and dry.

At first, Hiccup had mapped out how large the cell was, but now he wasn’t even sure how large it was. Maybe it was small. So small, and the walls were closing in on him. They were moving, and they were going to crush him, suffocate him, break his bones.

He waved his hand in front of his face. At first he couldn’t see anything, but then it was like he could see his own fingers, though he couldn’t see anything at all. He couldn’t hear anything either, unless he made a sound. 

Maybe he wasn’t even in a cell. Maybe he was dead and this was what death was like. Maybe Valhalla, Helheim, and Niflheim didn’t even exist and this nothingness was the end.

But why would he feel hunger and thirst in death?

No, he was alive, but just existing in a place of nothingness. It was like being in some other plane of existence, one that he was entirely alone in. No one else. Just him. Isolated and desolate.

Then Hiccup began to see things in the dark. Flashes of color: purple, yellow, blue. He reached out towards the lights, but his fingers didn’t touch anything. He stepped forward, crashed right into stone. He fell back with a cry, rubbing his nose. There was something wet on his fingers, and it was warm, probably blood.

After the colors came other shapes, shadows moving, and he swore he saw a flash of scales.

“Toothless?” His voice seemed to echo in the small cell, reverberate, come back to him and make his head hurt. It was the only sound that had been in the place in a long time, and it was too much, too loud.

There was no Toothless though. He’d been captured with him, but he didn’t know where his dragon was, what had happened to him. In the silence that followed, he thought he heard the sound of a dragon shrieking in pain. Maybe he did. Maybe they were torturing Toothless right outside the door to get to him.

“No, no!” Hiccup screamed. He pounded his fists on what he thought was the door, but he could have been turned around a hundred times in this cell and could have been pounding on the wrong wall. His fists hurt. There was blood and pain. Hiccup kept screaming, and it was so loud in the desolate silence of the stone cell.

Hiccup fell back, panting, bloody hands over his face as he sobbed. The noise repeated, and maybe there was someone else sobbing and crying with him. Maybe he wasn’t really alone.

But then there was silence again, and he was alone.

Silence and darkness.

Time passed. He saw more flashes of color. He saw more dragons. He cried some more. Someone else cried with him. Maybe. He only knew he was alive because he was still breathing and he was so thirsty. He tried putting his own tears in his mouth but it was too hot and too salty. He was hungry, started smelling meat cooking, and his mouth watered. Gods, it smelled so good. If he could have some, just have some.

“Can I have some?” Hiccup asked. “Please, can I have some food?”

No one answered.

“Please, I’m so hungry.”

Nothing.

Next, he tried begging for water. He also got no answer. He was still alone. The smell of food disappeared. His stomach rumbled, breaking the quiet.

Nothingness. Darkness. Silence. It was maddening.

The door opened. Hiccup had been leaning against it. He spilled out into the light of torches, and he brought his hands up to cover his head, closing his eyes. The light felt like spears stabbing into his eyes. He cried out as his captors grabbed him, dragging him somewhere else. Sensation was so new to him, and everything was too much, too loud, too bright. He was completely overwhelmed, and so he cried.

He was seated in a chair, and it took a long time for him to pull himself together. He smelled food, but it had to be fake. There were flashes of color behind his eyelids. He hadn’t been dragged out. He was still in the cell.

But then Hiccup weakly opened his eyes, and he saw a table set before him with  _ real  _ food and drink, and his mouth watered. Across from him sat Viggo Grimborn, looking calm and collected as always. He had his hands folded on the table. There was no plate for him. The feast was just for Hiccup.

“Hello, Hiccup.”

Hiccup ignored him, and went straight for the food. There were roasted meats, boiled vegetables, warm bread, cheeses, wine and water and mead. Hiccup ate too fast, too messily, and he only looked at Viggo again when he was leaning back in his chair, a hand over his slightly distended stomach. He felt a mix of content and slightly ill.

“Did you enjoy your meal?” Viggo asked.

Hiccup didn’t know how to answer. A sudden fear clutched him. He shouldn’t have eaten any of that. What if it had been poisoned?

Viggo answered as if he could read his mind.

“It wasn’t poisoned, I assure you.”

“I… enjoyed it,” Hiccup said carefully. He didn’t know how to act around Viggo, especially after the time he had spent in the cell. He hadn’t thought isolation and darkness like that could be such torture. No one had laid a hand on him and he’d nearly lost his mind. He still couldn’t tell if what he’d experienced in there had been real or hallucinations. He didn’t know how long he’d been in there, how long he’d been captured. “Where’s Toothless?”

“Your dragon is safe,” Viggo told him. “In a large cell of his own, unchained, but muzzled. He’s being fed and watered. Do not worry.”

“What do you want from me? You have the Dragon Eye.”

“Yes, but you have the lenses,” Viggo said, leaning forward. “I have a few, but I need the ones you have. Will you tell me where they are?”

Hiccup thought about that. If Viggo had all the Dragoneye lenses, more dragons would be in danger, and he would only make more money and expand his empire. He would become more powerful, and Hiccup couldn’t let a cruel man like him gain power.

“No.”

Viggo looked disappointed. He sighed, shook his head. “I suppose your isolation taught you nothing.” He looked to the two Hunters guarding the door. “Take him back.”

“What? No, no!” The Hunters grabbed Hiccup under the arms, hoisted him up. They paused when Viggo raised a hand.

“So you will give me the lenses?”

Hiccup decided to be brave even in the face of his torment. “Go shove the Dragoneye up your ass. That’ll at least be something more productive to do.”

Viggo leaned back in his chair, let loose a genuine laugh. “Oh, Hiccup. Such spunk. I’ll look forward to speaking to you again, but for now, back to your cell.” He waved his hand, and the guards took him away. Hiccup struggled, kicked and screamed, bit, but they held him fast. One punched him in the gut, and he went limp in their arms. 

They took him back to the cell, and shut him in darkness. The sound of the door closing was the last he would hear from the outside for days to come. On the inside of the cell, he screamed. 


End file.
